Result of Boredom
by ZDBurkett
Summary: Luke Skywalker, bored with his uneventful life as a farmer on Tatooine, stumbles upon a strange item - a mysterious notebook found dropped in the sand, which leads him to meet a familiar Shinigami who is bored with his own, redundant existence as well.
1. Chapter 1

"Thank the Maker!" the golden protocol droid exclaimed with what Luke could only describe as delight as it was lowered into a large tub brimming with warm oil. "This oil bath is going to feel so good! I've got such a bad case of dust contamination, I can hardly move!"

It was odd, Luke mused, the array of emotions the droid could convey with only a mechanized vocabulator and a faceplate fixed in one perpetually bleak expression. The same could be said for the little astromech droid for that matter, which trough its range of beeps and chirps seemed to relay its own distinct, almost human-like personality.

Luke didn't know what it was, but he had a funny feeling about these new droids his uncle purchased today, as if they would somehow come to play larger roles in his life than he would ever have imagined.

_What the frak am I thinking?_ Luke said to himself, dismissing such a baseless notion and concentrating his attention back to his chores. _This desert heat must be getting to me_. Remembering he was supposed to be repairing the little R2 unit, he peered around the cluttered garage in search of a hydrospanner, lost somewhere amid the jumble of rusted tools and speeder components.

The astromech droid whistled cheerfully.

Luke heaved a deep sigh, his eyes catching sight of his model T-16 Skyhopper as they scanned the disorganized workbench for the hydrospanner. The miniature vehicle stimulated a resurgence of bittersweet memories, whisking Luke back to Beggar's Canyon where he and Biggs, deftly piloting their own T-16s, would bull's-eye womp rats as the critters scampered away.

_Biggs_, Luke thought dejectedly. His friend was probably gallivanting around the galaxy on some remarkable escapade, carrying through with his exciting plan to defect from the Imperial Academy and join the growing rebellion.

"It just isn't fair," Luke groaned aloud, unable to contain his frustration any longer. "Biggs is right. I'm never going to get out of here!"

The golden protocol droid suddenly spoke up. "Is there something I might do to help?" it immediately offered, almost empathetically.

Luke took a calming breath and then chuckled amiably. "Not unless you can alter time, speed up the harvest, or teleport me off this rock."

The droid's photoreceptors dimmed ever so slightly. "I don't think so, sir. I'm only a droid, and not very knowledgeable about such things," it said apologetically. "Not on this planet anyway. As a matter of fact, I'm not even sure which planet I'm on."

Luke arched an eyebrow. _That's odd_, he thought. A fairly large portion of the droid's memory would've had to have been wiped for it to be missing a detail as significant as that.

"Well, if there's a bright center to the universe," Luke began, "then you're on the planet that it's farthest from." He knew as well as anyone that Tatooine's barren landscape was marked by little more than bounding seas of endless sand and mountainous dunes, heated by two blazing suns and devoid of precious water that didn't require a moisture vaporator to collect.

_Of all planets, why do I have to be stuck here?_

Suddenly, Luke heard a soft thud, just barely audible outside the garage door, like something dropping into the sand and landing with a plunk. _Probably just a womp rat._

"I see, sir," the droid said evenly, snapping Luke out of his thoughts.

"You can call me Luke," Luke replied, discomforted and slightly embarrassed, for he was unaccustomed to being held in such high regard, or being addressed in so formal a manner. As a boy living an uneventful, and admittedly insignificant, life on his aunt and uncle's moisture farm, Luke did not feel he warranted the title of _sir_.

"I see, Sir Luke," the droid attempted to correct itself.

His discontent beginning to efface, Luke allowed himself to laugh once again. "No, just Luke."

_This droid's a curious thing_, Luke marveled to himself. Never having owned one before, he wondered if this was normal behavior for a protocol droid. Regardless, he decided that it was even a bit amusing, or would at the very least relieve a portion of his boredom and serve as a distraction from the life he knew he would never be living.

_Of all planets…_

"And I am See-Threepio, human-cyborg relations," the protocol droid said as he emerged from the oil bath, dark liquid dripping from his joints and servomotors and streaking down his gold plating. "And this is my counterpart, Artoo-Detoo." He gestured toward the jittery astro droid.

"Hello," Luke said as he kneeled down before the astromech having finally found the hydrospanner and began scraping the connectors on its silver and blue dome.

Artoo-Detoo beeped blissfully.

"You got a lot of carbon scoring on here," Luke noted as he fiddled with the droid's sensors and used a cloth to wipe its durasteel surface, which had become worn from the desert.

"Luke!" a woman's voice beckoned from the other room. "Come to dinner!"

Slowly getting to his feet, Luke tossed down the hydrospanner and stretched his arms. "I'll be right there Aunt Beru!" he called back. "I'll be right back," he groaned to the droids before trudging to the garage door.

As Luke dragged his feet to the kitchen, he noticed the sky was beginning to darken and paused for a moment, considering stepping outside to catch the sunset. Perhaps the one beautiful thing this wasteland had to offer was its remarkable sunset, a time during which Tatooine's open firmament glowed violet, soft and serene, and the blaze of the twin suns faded as they crossed over the horizon.

It was a sight worth seeing, Luke decided. In fact, it was perhaps the only solace that life on this bleak and uneventful planet permitted him, the only interesting part of his day in a routine lifestyle of work and chores. And he knew his blue milk wasn't going anywhere.

After all, it's what his aunt served every single night.

Heaving a great sigh, Luke rested his foot on a mound of sand as he amorously watched the distant suns creep ever so slowly closer to the horizon, a subtle evening breeze gently wafting against his hair and splashing against his face.

_Anything. Anything at all_, Luke wished dismally as he gazed into the twilight, envious of the setting suns and the way they shined brightly and freely while he was confined to laboring on the farm, repairing droids and tending to moisture vaporators. _I just want something interesting to happen to me. I just want some excitement. _

That's when he noticed it. Lying at his feet, half-buried by desert, was a small dark object, its corner protruding from the sand. Raising an eyebrow, he curiously bent down to pick it up. After shaking the sand from it, Luke was shocked to discover what it was.

It was a tome. No, a _book_.

_How is that possible? _Luke thought, bewildered. Everyone knew that even before the days of the Old Republic, books had become obsolete centuries ago with the advent of datapads, which were commonplace in the galaxy. Books, however, were exceedingly rare.

Luke slowly ran his hand over the cover and felt an inexplicable apprehension that he told him to put it back. What this ominous sensation was, he couldn't explain. However he couldn't help but let his curiosity get the better of him. He studied the text inscribed on the cover and, noting the series of bizarre symbols, immediately ascertained that it was definitely not Galactic Basic.

_Then what is this? _he wondered. _An alien language?_

He flipped it open and turned to the first page, feeling the thin paper slide between his fingers.

Luke's eyes instantly widened when he read the line of text scrawled onto the page.

"The human whose name is written in this notebook… shall die?"


	2. Chapter 2

II

The suns had fully set, shrouding the barren desert landscape in sweeping darkness. The only illumination emanated from a weak light that glowed dimly from within the homestead, bathing the surrounding sand in a faint yet eerie luminescence.

"The human whose name is written in this notebook shall die," Luke repeated to himself softly, examining the item he held in his hands. "What _is _this thing?" he wondered aloud, his mind racing. Could it be some kind of joke? Whatever it was, it was extremely morbid.

A startlingly thunderous gust of wind from above abruptly called Luke's attention away from the mysterious artifact and to the night sky, where he observed an impossible sight that caused his jaw to drop in utter disbelief.

Descending like an enormous and demented mynock out of the darkness was a twisted and terrifying form unlike anything Luke had ever seen. Looking like it had crawled out of one of Dathomir's deepest and darkest caves, the thing swooped down menacingly on flapping hawkbat wings as it emerged from the black of night.

Frozen with fear, Luke stood paralyzed as the gruesome creature approached, its hideous features growing less and less obscure as it drew nearer. Its colorless visage was a sickly white, complete with a crooked maw lined with serrated teeth and two striking yellow eyes that blazed fervently as Tatooine's twin suns.

His eyes wide with fright, Luke felt his knees begin to tremble uncontrollably as the horrific phantom arrived before him, its mouth contorted into a wide, toothy grin. Fighting to regain control over his own body, Luke shakily staggered back on unsteady feet.

The monstrosity was garbed entirely in black, which accentuated the contrastingly stark pallor of its ghostly face, fixed in an almost psychotic expression. The thing's lanky, elongated arms dangled loosely like willowy vines at its sides, ending in clawed digits adorned with rings. But what disturbed Luke even more than its sinuous appendages and razor-sharp claws was its head, which appeared to be stitched to its torso, as though the decapitated head of one creature had simply been sewn onto the body of another.

Luke, after suddenly feeling himself hit the sand, found that he was clambering back on his hands and feet in a desperate attempt to escape this horrible abomination. His heart was pounding so loudly that he could barely hear himself think, much less come up a coherent explanation as to what this creature could be. Was it an alien race from some uncharted world, deep within the Unknown Regions?

He'd never seen, or even heard tales of, such a horrific monster existing anywhere in the galaxy.

_This isn't happening_, he told himself. _It has to be a dream. _

To Luke's astonishment, the thing did not continue to advance, but instead merely hovered ominously in place, completely unmoving save for its gnarled wings which were batting consistently behind it. The creature bared its pointed teeth as its yellow eyes gazed at him maniacally, sending a chill down Luke's spine.

_No,_ he thought frenziedly, _a nightmare!_

"W-what do you want?" he stammered, finally finding his voice.

The creature hissed, its tone a deep, sonorous rasp, "I'm the one who dropped that notebook."

"Take it!" Luke cried fearfully from where he cowered on the ground, looking up at the thing in sheer horror. "Take it, I don't want it!"

The monster's twisted, psychotic grin appeared to widen even more. "I'm afraid I can't do that," it croaked. "From the moment I dropped it, you became the notebook's owner, Luke Skywalker."

"What?" Luke sputtered. "How do you know my name?"

"I can see it," the creature replied evenly. "As well as the remaining time you have to live."

Speechless and eyes wide, Luke tried to swallow but his attempt was impeded by a dry lump that had developed in his throat. "W-what are you?" he finally said weakly, fumbling over his words.

"You can call me Ryuk," said the creature. "I'm a Shinigami, or God of Death. And I see you're the being who found my Death Note."

"A g-god of death?" Luke quickly glanced at the book he still clutched in his sweaty, shaking hands. "_Death Note_?" he repeated in bemusement, mind racing as he scrutinized the little notebook.

"_Luke!_" he heard his aunt's voice ring from inside.

"Sorry Aunt Beru!" Luke called back. "I'm coming right now!"

Struggling to climb to his feet, Luke frantically regarded the hideous Shinigami, his face set in an expression of complete helplessness. _How am I going to explain this to Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen?_ he thought desperately.

"Go ahead kid," Ryuk said, as though the other was able to read his mind. "She can't see me. Not unless she touches the Death Note." He gestured toward the notebook, pointing with a dagger-like talon.

Luke took an uneasy gulp and tentatively paced toward the entrance to the homestead, beyond which he could already see his aunt and uncle seated at the dinner table waiting for him. A bead of perspiration streaked his face like a rivulet as Luke slowly stepped into the kitchen. Fighting an anxious struggle to conceal his nerves, he was dismayed to realize that the Shinigami was following closely behind him, though he dared not look back.

"Luke!" his aunt cried in out horror the moment she saw him.

_Oh, no!_ Luke thought immediately, feeling his stomach begin to churn. _She sees him!_

To his amazement, however, his aunt's eyes seemed to be locked intently on him, rather than paying any mind to the gruesome figure that glided like a menacing shadow in his wake. Luke suddenly heard Ryuk begin to laugh, an unnervingly throaty and maniacal chortle.

"Are you all right?" Aunt Beru said, concern evident in her gentle voice. "You look like you've just seen a ghost!"

Luke couldn't believe what was happening.

"Oh, she's good," Ryuk uttered between his devilish cackling. "She almost nailed that."

Stifling a gasp, Luke marveled in disbelief whether his eyes and ears were deceiving him. The creature just _spoke_! It spoke in its distinctly raspy growl of a voice and his aunt and uncle seemed completely oblivious, as if they hadn't heard anything at all!

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said hesitantly, trying to calm himself and appear casual.

"Well, sit down," Luke's uncle said, eyeing him peculiarly. He motioned toward a chair. "Your chokie's getting cold."

Luke took a nervous breath. "Actually, I don't have much of an appetite tonight, Uncle Owen."

"Oh," Owen said flatly. "Well how about –"

"You know, I think I'm going to head back to the garage for a bit," Luke said abruptly.

Ryuk observed this entire exchange with unmistakable amusement, his twisted lips fashioned into a wild grin that revealed his razor-sharp teeth.

"Are you sure everything is okay, Luke?" Beru said worriedly. "You're acting so strange."

"It's nothing, Aunt Beru," Luke lied reassuringly as he started toward the door, Ryuk floating silently behind him. "Don't worry about it. I'll be in the garage if you need me."

"So long," the Shinigami said to Luke's aunt and uncle as he followed him out of the kitchen, although he knew his words would not be audible to them.

"Don't forget to prepare those new droids for tomorrow," Owen said, but Luke was already out the door. "In the morning I want them on the south ridge working on those condensers."

"Got it, Uncle Owen!" Luke called back.

"Kids these days," he heard his uncle say as Luke stepped into the darkened garage.


End file.
